1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disk drive flexure used in a disk drive for an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) is used in an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer. The hard disk drive includes a magnetic disk rotatable about a spindle, a carriage turnable about a pivot, etc. A disk drive suspension is disposed on an arm of the carriage.
The disk drive suspension has a load beam, a flexure arranged to overlap the load beam, and others. A slider is mounted on a gimbal portion formed near the distal end of the flexure. The slider is provided with elements (transducers) for accessing data, that is, for reading or writing data. The suspension, flexure, etc., constitute a head gimbal assembly.
As the flexure, various conformations are in practical use in accordance with required specifications. For example, a flexure with conductors includes a metal base formed of a thin stainless steel sheet, an insulating layer made of an electrically insulative material such as polyimide formed on this metal base, and conductors made of copper formed on this insulating layer. One end of each conductor is connected to an element (e.g., an MR element) provided on the slider. The other end of each conductor is connected to an electrical circuit such as an amplifier.
Further, a slider including an attached electronic unit such as a thermal assist device is also known. For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2010-61782 (Patent Literature 1) discloses a thermal assist recording head. In this thermal assist recording head, a thermal assist device having a laser diode is arranged on a back surface of the slider. A wiring portion of the flexure for use in such a thermal assist recording head has a conductor for the slider and a conductor for the thermal assist device. The conductor for the slider is connected to a terminal of the slider, and the conductor for the thermal assist device is connected to a terminal of the thermal assist device.
The thermal assist device according to Patent Literature 1 is arranged on the back surface of the slider. In this thermal assist device, a position of the terminal of the slider is different from a position of the terminal of the thermal assist device in the thickness direction of the wiring portion. In a wiring portion which is of a single-layer type, all conductors are formed on the same surface. Therefore, in Patent Literature 1, a wiring configuration for achieving connection of the conductors with the terminal of the slider and connection of the conductors with the terminal of the thermal assist device is complicated, and a cost required for the wiring section is increased.
Jpn. Pat. Appin. KOKAI Publication No. 2010-170626 (Patent Literature 2) discloses a suspension substrate having a slider terminal and a light-emitting element terminal. In a wiring configuration of Patent Literature 2, an auxiliary section formed on the suspension substrate is bent 180°. Further, an end portion of a light-emitting element conductor is arranged to face the light-emitting element terminal by overlapping this auxiliary section with a substrate body section.
The thermal assist recording head in Patent Literature 1 has a complicated wiring configuration for connecting the wiring portion to a light source unit. In the suspension substrate in Patent Literature 2, bending the auxiliary section itself 180° is difficult. Furthermore, since the auxiliary section overlaps the substrate body section, the thickness of a tongue portion increases. Moreover, this overlap can be a factor that deteriorates flatness of the tongue portion or varies the thickness of the tongue section.
In the suspension having the attached electronic unit, for example, the thermal assist device or a light-emitting device, simplifying the wiring configuration of the flexure is desired. Therefore, arranging a slider conductor and an attached electronic unit conductor on the same plane is preferable. That is, a single-layer type wiring portion is desirable. However, in the single-layer type wiring portion, end portions of many conductors must be arranged in a narrow region near the slider in close proximity to each other. Therefore, a distance between the respective conductors is two small, and assuring electrical insulation of the conductors is difficult.